Tuesday, 20 January 2009

We have friends arriving tomorrow so in a bid to be organised set out to buy ingredients for the various dinners planned. My wife being who she is thought that rather than a quick trip around town we should head to Spain. Something about Rioja and tortilla swayed me to her train of thought.

Venturing south to a border town called Irun we spent a fabulous few hours perusing the butchers and vegetable shops of the Spanish Basque country. Though efficient Irun lacks the architectural charm of St Jean de Luz and while Spanish Basques are considerably more severe than their French brethren they do provide fantastic quality and value. We were fully stocked with a one third saving which appealed greatly to my Scottish sensibilities. Moreover and most importantly the Spanish love their whisky so I augmented Maria's argument for shopping in Spain by acquiring a year's supply of the amber nectar. We were home in time to watch President Obama's inauguration, I believe we were amongst the very few locals doing so.

Basque Bylines

Traversing the planet is always good for the soul but so is returning home. Following ten months in Outer Mongolia a Scotsman and his wife return from the Steppe. Back in St Jean de Luz the sun still sits high in the sky, Gateau Basque remains as tempting as ever and life in the Basque Country moves forever onwards at its own luxurious pace. Having answered one important question, one remains:

What makes gateau Basque taste so good?

[What made Chinggis Khaan so darned angry? Nothing rhymed with his name which as a budding poet grated heavily and have you ever tried to run the world's greatest ever empire from a ger on the remote Steppe surrounded by camels at -40C?]